More and more leaders are starting to add Diversity and Inclusion to their strategic agenda, and it’s about time. The benefits of diverse and inclusive teams have been proven both in the laboratory and in organizations.

Mixed gender executive boards have outperformed all-male ones by 26% over the last six years according to research by Credit Suisse, while global studies have shown that organizations with diverse and inclusive cultures are 45% more likely to have improved their market share in the last 12 months, and have employees who not only give greater discretionary effort but are also less likely to leave. The experimental research suggests that higher market growth is driven by more innovation and better quality decision making within diverse and inclusive teams.

Build an inclusive environment where people flourish (photo credit: Thinkstock)

Few organizations even distinguish between diversity and inclusion, let alone measure or target them individually. While diversity can be addressed as a compliance issue and tracked fairly easily, the range of individual behaviors which make up inclusion mean it’s trickier to pin down and add to an HR leader’s goals.

What’s more, as policies designed to increase diversity kick in and the workforce becomes more varied, inclusion becomes more difficult. Inclusiveness happens when very different individuals feel free to embrace their uniqueness and that they belong. As employee dissimilarity increases then this becomes harder as people feel less known and understood by their colleagues.

Enforced participation efforts don’t work – a recent study showed that up to 61% of individuals feel like they’re covering up something of themselves in order to fit in at work. Faking it to fit in: not a recipe for engagement or performance.

Inclusion requires individuals to alter their innate beliefs and behaviors, which is why it is more difficult to realize and so powerful when that happens. In upcoming posts I’ll explore where traditional diversity training goes wrong and why understanding oneself is key to overcoming bias and fostering inclusion.

Organizations that are brave enough to address inclusion as a cultural issue will reap enormous benefits. The starting point is a few key shifts in attitude: from diversity alone (delivered at a corporate level) to diversity and inclusion (delivered by individuals); from demographics to diversity of thinking; and from D&I as an issue of compliance to an essential facet of business success.

I'm an author and the cofounder of Mind Gym, a company that transforms the way people think, behave at work and at home by using the very best of applied psychology. I post about solving challenges at work and home using the latest research in psychology. If you like what y...